Saudi utility Acwa Power hopes to take FID on the $5bn Neom green hydrogen project before the end of the year, the firm says.

The Neom development is owned by Acwa (with 33.3pc), US industrial gases company Air Products (also with 33.3pc) and state economic zone developer Neom Company (with 33.34pc) each own a share of the Neom development—the largest planned green hydrogen project in the world, which is due to produce 1.2mn t/yr of green ammonia to be sold by Air Products to global markets.

“We are making solid progress at the Neom green hydrogen company, where we are working toward achieving financial close by the end of this year,” says Acwa CEO Paddy Padmanathan.

The project partners awarded a $900mn EPC contract award to Air Products in April. The company and its subsidiaries will carry out the EPC work both in Saudi Arabia and on overseas value chains.

The $5bn green hydrogen-to-ammonia complex will be situated in Neom, a city planned on the Red Sea coast in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

The facility will use more than 4GW of renewable energy—2GW of wind and 2GW of solar—to produce hydrogen that will be converted into ammonia. Solar power may be produced at around a recent Saudi tender price of $0.0104 kW/h.

Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Chlorine Engineers will supply a 2GW electrolyser to the project.

Further projects

Acwa is also pursuing a project in Oman with Air Products and Omani state-owned energy group OQ that is running about two years behind Neom.

The firm is also looking to develop a third project in the Middle East or Africa and has signed memorandums of understanding evaluating potential projects in Oman, South Africa and Egypt.

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Author: Tom Young